The twilight language explores hidden meanings and synchromystic connections via onomatology (study of names) and toponymy (study of place names). This blog further investigates "name games" and "number coincidences" found in news and history. Examinations are also found in my book The Copycat Effect (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004).

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Down The Road of Yellow Bricks: Oz and FLW

Yes, there are porcelain people in our future, folks.

Oz: The Great and Powerful is due in theaters on March 8, 2013.

By pure coincidence, I obtained a book a few days ago, opened it, and saw these remarkable endpapers above. The book's name is Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide by Thomas A. Heinz. It was published in 2005 by Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois.

The homes and buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) appear to create a synchromystic goldmine of material to examine. Some of it has been explored here at Twilight Language (see below).

In my posting on the Fortean Society and Forteans, I mention that Frank Lloyd Wright was an early member of the Fortean Society. As demonstrated by where these endpapers lead us, as well as his associates in the Fortean Society, the people linked to Frank Lloyd Wright certainly points right down the "road of yellow bricks."

At the top of the first inside page of Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide, I found the explanation behind what greeted me when I first viewed the book. Heinz has written:

The endpapers in this book have been recreated from those used by L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz, in an earlier book he wrote, typeset, printed, and bound for publishers Way & (Chauncey) Williams of Chicago, called By the Candelabra's Glare. Baum's endpaper are reported to have been taken from wallpaper used in the Wright-designed Chauncey Williams house....(p. 2)

The Chauncey L. Williams House is located at 530 Edgewood Place, River Forest, Illinois.

The house was scaled to accommodate Williams's height: he was six feet four inches tall. With money inherited from his father, he started a publishing firm Way and Williams. He knew attorney Clarence Darrow and Kansas Governor Henry J. Allen along with bookseller George Millard who were all Wright clients. (p. 282)

I'm still waiting for someone to give Baum's axis mundi symbolism its due: The tornado, Dorothy starting in Kansas, which was then the geographical center of the United States and ultimately arriving at the geographical center of Oz. The four kingdoms of Oz with their color-coding and the Emerald City in the center -- emerald is traditionally associated with the axis mundi (which may also be why Aragorn insisted that Bilbo include an emerald in his poem about Earendel, another otherworld journey.)I have no great confidence that the Disney people will have aimed any higher than "adventure story with steampunk touches" -- but if they've mined Baum deeply enough to include the porcelain people, one never knows. ~ Cory Panshin.

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The new film does have a porcelain person.

Oz: The Great and Powerful appears to be a film that will contain some powerful synchrocinematic imagery.

Here's something you may not know about (Oz's) Australia's capital city Canberra (The Emerald City?);"The development of modern Canberra -The Griffins, Walter Burley and Marion Mahony, had both spent considerable time working for Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago. Marion worked for him for 14 years and Walter for five.

Walter Burley Griffin was influenced by the City Beautiful and Garden City movements which influenced town planning during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was also influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright's work, particularly in the development of the Prairie style, which included not just the design of a house, but the interiors as well, including stained glass, fabrics, carpet and other accessories.

The influence of the City Beautiful and Garden City movements is clear in Griffin's plans for Canberra - green bands surrounding areas of settlement, wide boulevards lined with large buildings, formal parks and water features. "

What a great post, Mr. Coleman. As an observer of synchromysticism and a writer of same phenomena, I was intrigued by this most recent post. The connections between Oz and FLW are worth noting. And I saw a poster here note the connection between FLW and Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. WBG is my great-great uncle and I have read numerous books on him and his work in Canberra Australia. WBG indeed had a falling out with FLW and would go on and win the "design Australia's capital contest" (2013 is the centenary celebration of Canberra). As many may already know, Canberra's design is quite symbolic with links to the Pyramids at Giza and Stonehenge, among others. The Griffins were private people with deep interest in the esoteric and geomancy. Much can be found in "The Secret Plan of Canberra" by Peter Proudfoot. There are other books I could note as well. The Griffins never revealed the true nature of their layout to the politicians and bureaucrats of Australia, as those people considered the Griffin plan impractical. - Andrew W. Griffin / OKC, USA.

Yep, Brizdaz, I have been working on an essay about the Griffins, Walter Burley and Marion Mahony, and their links to Frank Lloyd Wright, and to Andrew Griffin, since June 2012. I revisited the Griffins connection to my life in Decatur, Illinois, at Millikin Place, in person, in July 2011. I have been gathering material on that angle for a long time.

If my talk in Sydney, Australia next fall comes off, I'm trying to figure out how to make it over to Canberra, the Emerald City!!

I admit to a fascination with FLR and sync as well. I visited Taliesin West in Phoenix last year, which had all sorts of personal syncs to accompany it.

FLW called himself "the world's greatest architect", and perhaps he was, but he was also a bit of a showman and even a fraud, being constantly in arrears - paying off creditors with the advance from the next job.

Considering the characterization of the Wizard by L. Frank Baum, one wonders if he didn't base it on FLR.

The Masons call God "The Great Architect", and this connection between FLR, the world's greatest architect, And LFB, leads me to speculate on what exactly LFB was saying with this Fortean connection.

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About Me

Investigator of human and animal mysteries since 1960. Swamp Thing character "Coleman Wadsworth" in #4:7 and more in #4:8, is a tribute.
Author of over 35 books, including The Unidentified (1975), Mysterious America (1983/2007), Suicide Clusters (1987), Cryptozoology A to Z (1999), Bigfoot! (2003), The Copycat Effect (2004), and field guides.
Educated in anthropology-zoology at SIU-Carbondale, and psychiatric social work at Simmons College School of Social Work. Began doctoral work in anthropology (Brandeis University) and family violence (UNH). Taught at NE universities (1980 to 2003), while concurrently a senior researcher at the Muskie School (1983 to 1996), before retiring to write, lecture, consult, & open museum. Popular documentary course was taught for 23 semesters; appeared on C2C, The Larry King Show, MonsterQuest, Lost Tapes, In Search Of, and other tv programs.
Loren Coleman is a dedicated father (Caleb, Malcolm, Des), cryptozoologist, media consultant, and baseball fan.